Selective oxidation of alcohols using N-benzylidene-N, N-dimethylthane-1, 2-diamine, CuBr2 and TEMPO as the catalytic system was developed. Catalyzed by this simple catalytic system in the absence of any external base, various benzylic alcohols could be oxidized to their corresponding aldehydes with excellent yields in CH3CN/H2O (v/v= 1/1) under 0.2 MPa O2 at 80° C.
